Tag: NBA Trade Rumors

Draymond Green: Warriors locker room staying realistic but not focused on trade deadline

Draymond Green spoke about the impact the upcoming trade deadline will have on the Warriors’ locker room.

The 2019-20 NBA season has been a profound change of pace for the Golden State Warriors. Over the past five seasons, the standard has been a trip to the NBA Finals for the Warriors, but injuries have rerouted their season.

Instead of focusing on the playoffs, Golden State has set its sight on the 2020 NBA trade deadline. Golden State has already traded Willie Cauley-Stein to the Dallas Mavericks and now have several members of their team mixed into trade rumors. Multiple reports point to teams pursuing D’Angelo Russell, with Alec Burks and Glenn Robinson III also linked to trades.

Worrying about trade rumors is new to Draymond Green and the rest of the Steve Kerr era Warriors. Green spoke to media after the Warriors win in Washington about how Golden State is handling this trade deadline in comparison to the past.

I think everything is different — it’s not quite the same, nothing is really the same, so you can’t approach it with the same mindset, but as a player just try and go out there each and every night and step on the floor to just play — forget about all those things, that’s why those guys have agents that handle whatever is going to happen, you know and you focus on doing your job and that’s what we try to do.

Reporters asked Green in Washington if the impact of the looming trade deadline was causing any angst in the Warriors’ locker room.

Yeah definitely — I think so, but it’s not something we’re focused on — we’re all realistic, we understand this business and what could possibly happen — we will just continue to play and continue to try and win — go from there.

Golden State will finish up their east coast road swing Brooklyn with a chance to register a winning road trip on the eve of the NBA trade deadline. When the Warriors return to the Bay Area, the trade rumors for the 2019-20 season will be put to rest.

Reports: Rockets target Covington, Iguodala; Celtics in on Capela

Per ESPN, Robert Covington and Andre Iguodala are among the targets for the Rockets, who have spoken to teams about moving Clint Capela.

With the NBA’s 2019-20 trade deadline just three days away, the Boston Celtics are the latest team to reportedly show interest in Houston Rockets center Clint Capela, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

Other teams that had previously been identified as Capela suitors include the Atlanta Hawks and Sacramento Kings.

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The Rockets are said to be seeking a wing player in their moves, as well as a fill-in center to help replace Capela’s size. In Wojnarowski’s tweets on Monday afternoon, he identified Robert Covington in Minnesota and Andre Iguodala in Memphis as potential targets. Both could be attainable for Houston, given Capela’s outgoing salary of over $16 million.

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Since it wouldn’t seem that the Timberwolves with Karl-Anthony Towns and the Grizzlies with Jonas Valanciunas need a center such as Capela, that is likely why Rockets GM Daryl Morey is looking for third-team partners such as the Hawks, Kings, or Celtics.

The draft compensation from one of those teams for Capela could then be flipped to a team such as Minnesota or Memphis.

Both Covington and Iguodala, who are best known for their wing defense, have been rumored Houston targets for months.

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At just 25 years old, the 6-foot-10 Capela is averaging 13.9 points (62.9% shooting), 13.8 rebounds, and 1.8 blocks in 32.8 minutes per game this season. His per-game rebounding total is fourth in the league.

Capela is also under contract for three more seasons after the current 2019-20 campaign. That, combined with his age, makes him a plausible fit for both contenders and rebuilding teams, since he wouldn’t be a threat to leave his new destination in free agency until 2023.

As for Houston, with Capela missing several games of late with a minor heel injury, the Rockets have started usual power forward P.J. Tucker at center while inserting Danuel House Jr. to Tucker’s vacated spot.

They’re 3-0 in that recent small-ball stretch, including wins over two likely Western Conference playoff teams in Utah and Dallas.

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Overall, Houston is 9-1 (.900) in the 10 games that Capela has missed due to injury or illness this season. In the one loss, both All-Star guards James Harden and Russell Westbrook did not play.

Led by head coach Mike D’Antoni, the Rockets seem to be prioritizing maximum floor spacing for Harden and Westbrook with potential 3-point shooters at most or all positions, even if it costs them size.

The Rockets have one more game before Thursday’s trade deadline, which arrives at 2 p.m. Central time in Houston.

That next game comes Tuesday night at home versus Charlotte, with Capela again expected to sit out due to his heel injury.

Report: Rockets engaged in trade talks involving center Clint Capela

Per a Sunday report from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Rockets are engaged in trade talks involving starting center Clint Capela.

For the third time in under a week, the Houston Rockets won Sunday with starting center Clint Capela out due to a heel injury.

It appears that undersized lineup, which offers added floor spacing with 3-point shooters at all five positions, might not be a passing fad.

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According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Rockets were engaged Sunday with multiple Eastern Conference teams — including Atlanta — in trade talks regarding their 25-year-old big man. The NBA’s trade deadline comes at 2 p.m. Central time on this Thursday, Feb. 6.

While the Rockets and GM Daryl Morey might not can get the object of their desires from a trade with a rebuilding team, it seems they’re interested in repackaging a draft asset for Capela from a team such as the Hawks in another deal for the type of wing player they reportedly crave.

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At just 25 years old, Capela is averaging 13.9 points (62.9% shooting), 13.8 rebounds, and 1.8 blocks in 32.8 minutes per game this season. His per-game rebounding total is fourth in the league.

Capela is also under contract for three more seasons after the current 2019-20 campaign. That, combined with his age, makes him a potential fit for both contenders and rebuilding teams, since he wouldn’t be a threat to leave his new destination in free agency until 2023.

As far as the Rockets are concerned, head coach Mike D’Antoni seems to believe in the model of floor spacing for superstar guards James Harden and Russell Westbrook, even if it costs them size and rebounding.

Over Capela’s last three absences, the Rockets have started usual power forward P.J. Tucker at center while inserting Danuel House Jr. to Tucker’s vacated spot. They’re 3-0 in those games, including wins over two probable Western Conference playoff teams in Utah and Dallas.

Capela is currently day-to-day with a nagging right heel contusion, but it isn’t the type of long-term injury that could derail trade talks.

The Rockets (31-18), who are intent on contending for the NBA title this season with a pair of former MVPs in Harden and Westbrook, have one more game to be played before Thursday’s trade deadline.

That comes Tuesday night, when the Charlotte Hornets (16-33) visit Houston. At this juncture, be it for injury reasons, trade talks, or both, it would seem unlikely for Capela to play in that game. The 2020 deadline then arrives less than 48 hours later on Thursday afternoon.

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Report: Rockets prioritizing trade for wing player by deadline

The Rockets reportedly hope to trade for wing player by the NBA’s Feb. 6 deadline. One big question is if they have enough tradable salary.

With the NBA’s Feb. 6 trade deadline under two weeks away, the Houston Rockets are continuing their search for a wing player, according to a Friday report by The Athletic‘s Shams Charania.

In his latest “Inside Pass” column, Charania writes:

[Daryl] Morey and his front office will continue to scour the league for potential upgrades. The Rockets have prioritized a potential wing player acquisition before the Feb. 6 trade deadline, and are continuing to make future draft picks available for an upgrade, sources say.

Charania did not identify any specific player targets in Friday’s report, though he had previously listed Houston as an interested suitor for Minnesota forward Robert Covington.

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Houston recently benched former starter Danuel House Jr. at small forward, and they’re currently starting undersized Ben McLemore (6-foot-3) there ⁠— which makes it an obvious spot to seek an upgrade.

That’s especially the case since the Rockets (27-16) entered Friday having lost five of their last seven games, and perhaps in need of a spark to help regain their self-proclaimed status as a 2020 title contender.

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As for potential trade assets, the Rockets have their 2020 and 2022 first-round draft picks available, as well as second-round picks in 2021 and 2023. They also have several small trade exceptions at their disposal, as well as most of their cash allotment to help incentivize other teams.

This is a breakdown of Houston’s tradable picks moving forward:

The lost draft picks and swaps in the 2023-26 range are from Houston’s offseason trade of Chris Paul for Russell Westbrook.

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But even after that trade, it’s not as if Houston is devoid of assets. The larger problem is that they don’t have much “filler” salary for deals.

Any trade for a significant salary such as Covington is tricky for the Rockets, who are well above the league’s salary cap. This means they have to send out close to as much money as they take in to make a trade permissible under the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

Eric Gordon cannot be traded this season due to the timing of his contract extension, and the other four significant contracts on the Rockets (Westbrook, James Harden, Clint Capela, and P.J. Tucker) are unlikely to be dealt because of how essential they are to Houston’s championship chances. Excluding those five, every other player on the current roster makes approximately $3.5 million or less.

Thus, potential Houston acquisitions may need to be at a lower price point (in terms of salary) to make a trade workable. They might be able to trade for players making $10 million or more by combining several smaller salaries, but that would likely require a third- or even fourth-team partner for there to be enough open roster spots to send out so many players.

As of Friday, Morey has 13 days left to work his magic. If the Rockets are unable to strike a deal, they also have an open roster spot of their own at the moment, which could be used on a veteran player who is bought out after the Feb. 6 trade deadline.

But for now, it seems trades are clearly the top priority.

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Why an Andre Drummond trade could be dangerous for the Hawks

It’s way too early for the Hawks to consider making a move like this.

The Atlanta Hawks are having a pretty terrible season. They’re 7-27 right now and are the worst team in the NBA by record.

Just how bad are things? They last won a game on December 8th — it’s almost been a calendar month since then. It gets worse. Three of their seven wins came within the first two weeks of the season. On November 5th after beating the Spurs they were 3-3. They’re 4-24 since.

Their shining light of hope has been Trae Young, who is just one of two players in NBA history to average at least 28 points and eight assists while shooting 36 percent from three.

The other was James Harden two seasons ago when he won MVP. They’ve got a special one in Atlanta. Yet, that hasn’t translated to anything more than a wasted season.

The Hawks know that and they want to fix it. Apparently, they believe the solution might be trading for Andre Drummond. The Pistons and Hawks are in trade talks centered around their All-Star center, according to a report from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

A trade isn’t imminent, but Drummond would certainly fill a huge void for the Hawks at that position. But, at this point in the season, they should turn away. The Hawks don’t need Andre Drummond right now.

The Hawks are in “The Process” right now

No, they aren’t going through an overt Sam Hinkie tank job — they actually planned on competing this year, which is why a move like this is even in the cards.

But reality is reality. And the Hawks’ current reality is that they’re far and away the worst team in the NBA right now at 20 games under .500. If they kept playing at the pace they are currently, they’d be guaranteed no worse than a top five pick in next year’s draft.

The Hawks are right on pace with where they’re supposed to be. They found a transcendent talent in his second year with Trae Young and John Collins meshes well with him.

The rest of their roster is stacked with players that are either passed their prime or have no idea what they’re doing. There’s not much in between. They aren’t built to win at all.

Drummond isn’t going to change that — especially not this year. They’re already 20 games under .500. If they fight their way back to being the sixth worst team in the NBA instead of the worst team in the NBA, they’d be putting themselves in a much worse position.

The timeline for Drummond just doesn’t add up

Part of why the Hawks are in such a good position despite their record is that they don’t have big money committed to the bulk of the roster moving forward, and they have an extremely young and talented core.

Trae Young is just 21 years old. John Collins is only 22 years old. Whatever pick they’ll get next season will be between 19 and 21 years old — most likely on the younger side. There’s no reason to insert a 26-year-old Andre Drummond into that picture quite yet.

Drummond is searching for his third NBA contract and, with the numbers he’s putting up this season, it’ll probably be a max deal. If the Hawks traded for him, they’d be looking at dishing out a 5-year, $190 million deal.

The Hawks could pay him that. As it stands, they only have $33,369,003 in committed cap space for next season and that number shrinks every year after. They’ve got the cap flexibility next year.

But after that, it’s time for Collins to get paid. Then, after that, it’s time for Young to get paid. Next thing you know, you’re capped out with a team that might be winning 48 games or so for the next five years depending on what’s around them. That’s not a great place to be in.

The Hawks need to just chill. Losing sucks — we get it. But putting a rush job on a rebuild typically isn’t the wisest. You could end up like the Mavericks this year after the Porzingis deal and be pretty fun. But you could also end up like the Timberwolves after the Jimmy Butler deal and be completely miserable.

It’s best to just keep playing the cards you’ve been dealt instead of trying to fix the hand. If they want Drummond that bad, they can pick him up in free agency on a cheaper deal. But giving up assets for a contract that’ll be massive in a few months isn’t where it’s at.

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Report: Warriors ‘monitoring’ All-Star Karl-Anthony Towns situation

The Golden State Warriors could be positioning themselves to trade for Minnesota’s All-Star big man, Karl-Anthony Towns.

As long as the Golden State Warriors have D’Angelo Russell on their roster, and hold a high draft pick, there will be trade speculation surrounding the team.

How the Warriors manage Russell, their high draft pick, and other assets in a down season is a question that could define their 2019-20 season. With rumors buzzing, Golden State will start getting linked to potential players that could turn up on the trade block.

The latest potential trade chip paired with the Warriors, is Minnesota Timberwolves All-Star center, Karl-Anthony Towns. According to Ethan Sherwood Strauss of The Athletic, the Warriors have been “monitoring” Karl Anthony-Towns situation in Minnesota.

Strauss mentioned at the recent G League Showcase; multiple team executives believe Towns is unhappy in Minnesota as they sit near the bottom of the Western Conference standings.

Towns is in the first year of a five-year, $190 million contract extension he signed before the 2018-19 NBA season. Yet, the clock could be ticking in Minnesota if the former Kentucky star is disgruntled with his situation.

Golden State could be the perfect team to dissolve the Towns and Minnesota drama. The Warriors have D’Angelo Russell, a reported close friend of Towns, whom the Timberwolves were linked to over the offseason.

Russell visited Minnesota as a restricted free agent before being shipped to Golden State in a sign-and-trade with the Brooklyn Nets. Russell, plus the Warriors 2020 draft pick, could be enough for Minnesota to bite in Towns trade talks, with each team having the chance to walk away All-Star caliber young talent.

Towns, who recently turned 24 years old, already has two All-Star appearances under his belt and is averaging a career-high in points-per-game in 2019 (26.5). Towns is also dishing a career-high 4.4 assists per game while grabbing 11.6 rebounds per contest in his fifth season since being drafted first overall in 2015 out of Kentucky.

The Warriors are amidst a down season due to injury with Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson out. However, with the opening of their new arena in San Francisco, the Chase Center, and a shell of a championship roster, the Warriors could be a piece away from contention once fully healthy.

Adding a proven seven-foot talent like Towns to a core that features “the Splash Brothers,” and Draymond Green could accelerate the Warriors’ return to the top of the NBA mountain.

Report: Rockets very interested in Minnesota’s Robert Covington

Despite Houston’s rumored interest, it’s challenging to put together a workable Robert Covington trade between the Rockets and Timberwolves.

The Houston Rockets have “serious interest” in trading for Minnesota Timberwolves forward Robert Covington, according to a report published Tuesday by The Ringer‘s Kevin O’Connor.

Known best for his defense, the 6-foot-7 Covington is averaging 12.5 points (45.5% shooting, 36.9% on three-pointers) and 5.3 rebounds in 27.8 minutes per game this season. He’s signed through the 2021-22 season at an annual average of just over $12 million.

O’Connor writes:

The Houston Rockets have serious interest in Covington, league sources say. The Rockets are in the market for wings; with James Harden having another MVP-caliber season, they’re a team that should go all in no matter who the target is. They have the ammo to do so: Despite the pile of picks it sent Oklahoma City in the Chris Paul–for–Russell Westbrook blockbuster, Houston can still dangle its first-round picks in 2020 and 2022.

This coming Sunday, Dec. 15, is unofficially known in the NBA as the start of the league’s annual trading season. That’s because it’s the date that most players who signed new contracts over the last offseason are first eligible to be dealt. In turn, that opens up many more possibilities to make the math work around the league on potential deals.

Any trade for a significant salary is tricky for the Rockets, who are well above the league’s salary cap. This means they have to send out close to as much money as they take in, in order to make any trade permissible under the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

Unfortunately for Houston, they don’t have much in the way of “filler” salary for trades. To overcome that, the team’s hope appeared to be that an incentive-heavy contract to veteran center Nene could help bridge the financial gap. However, the NBA decided in September not to count the amount of the incentives toward Nene’s outgoing trade value, financially.

Eric Gordon cannot be traded this season due to the timing of his contract extension, and the other four significant contracts on the Rockets (James Harden, Russell Westbrook, Clint Capela, and P.J. Tucker) are unlikely to be dealt for Covington because they’re superior players. Excluding those five, every other player on the roster makes approximately $3.5 million or less.

The incentive for the rebuilding Timberwolves (10-13) to do a deal a Covington deal, as O’Connor notes, is there regardless. That would be one or both of the 2020 and 2022 first-round draft picks. But to make a deal legal under the CBA, the Rockets would have to send out close to $9 million in salary along with those picks.

Once Nene ($2.6 million) is trade eligible on Jan. 15, the Rockets could theoretically trade Nene, Ben McLemore ($2.1 million), and two or three other minimum salaries to get there. But the challenge is that Minnesota would have to open up as many as four extra roster spots after trading Covington to make such a deal legal, and that seems unlikely.

More reasonably, Rockets GM Daryl Morey would have to make it a three or even four-team deal to find enough open roster spots to make that type of structure workable. It would also require owner Tilman Fertitta greenlighting luxury tax payments, since trading four or five players for one and then filling out the depth chart with subsequent moves would push Houston well over the tax line — which they’re already close to.

In short, the stars would have to align perfectly. It’s not implausible, but for Houston to trade for a salary as large as Covington, several challenging variables would all need to line up.

At a minimum, though, it’s more evidence along the lines of Monday’s report that the Rockets (15-8) are aggressively targeting wing help on the market. By all indications, Morey won’t hesitate to give up future assets if it boosts the team’s championship odds this season.

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Despite the buzz about Boston, don’t expect trades any time soon

Dubbed “the spiritual successors to the Warriors”, will the Boston Celtics iteration of switchy defenders and high-powered offense be enough to succeed in the postseason?

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Don’t expect a trade to upgrade the Boston Celtics coming any time soon, particularly while the team sticks to its winning ways.

Coming into the season, the team’s big man rotation was widely seen to be a step below what the team would need to compete for a title, with larger, more skilled big men on the Philadelphia 76ers and Milwaukee Bucks looking like insuperable barriers to a deep postseason run.

One 10-game win streak later and those qualms have subsided significantly, particularly with Boston showing it could bounce back against the equally-surprising Phoenix Suns and former center Aron Baynes on Nov. 18.

There’s still legitimate reason to doubt the team’s current frontcourt will have what it takes to get past some of the better teams in the playoffs, where opponents will have more time and impetus to gameplan ways to use size against the team.

As the Ringer’s Jonathan Tjarks notes, the Celtics elevation of two third-overall picks (in consecutive NBA Drafts), Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, to trusted top offensive options and combining them defensive tour de force Marcus Smart (who can switch onto even the strongest and quickest bigs in the league) has somehow worked.

And not only worked, but created one of the more potent offensive two-man lineups in the league despite Tatum’s up-and-down nights and overall development.

“The Celtics are this year’s closest thing to the spiritual heirs of the Warriors,” explains Tjarks.

“They don’t have the same star power, but their key players all fit into similar roles. Kemba Walker, like Steph Curry, is a smaller guard who can bomb 3s and play on and off the ball, and they surround him with big wings who can defend multiple positions, space the floor, and create their own shot. Their best lineup, when everyone is healthy, doesn’t feature anyone above 6-foot-8: Kemba, Smart, Tatum, Brown, and Hayward.”

Tatum’s showing signs of putting things together and considering much of this has been going on without All-Star forward Gordon Hayward — out until December with a broken hand — while Kemba Walker has quietly inserted himself into the fringes of the MVP conversation.

Perhaps the wins shouldn’t be so surprising.

But the skepticism about the frontcourt remains, and quite possibly for good reason. While the Warriors indeed did not have a dominant big functioning in a rim-protecting, pick-setting, back-to-the-basket sort of center anchoring their formidable defenses, they also had a much more lethal array of shooters, arguably the greatest ever assembled in recent years.

Can Boston hope to compete for a title with such a notable step down on the offensive end? If not, is there a player who makes sense who could be had on the trade market?

According to senior ESPN writer Brian Windhorst, if there is, it won’t involve any core players — Walker, Hayward, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum or even Marcus Smart — from the team’s core. Smart and Hayward have been floated often as potential options in recent months.

That leaves the comparatively smaller salaries of players like veterans like Daniel Theis, Enes Kanter, and rookies Romeo Langford and Vincent Poirier, all of whom make $5 million per season or less, and all but Langford happen to be bigs shoring up the already- shaky frontcourt rotation.

Finding a player worth moving so many contracts (or on a deal so cheap) that makes sense to pull the trigger on will be no easy task and with so many new signings for the team in the offseason, any such deal would likely have to wait until at least Dec. 15, when certain recently-signed deals begin to become tradable according to league rules.

For now, the strategy of the “spiritual heirs of the Warriors” will be to refine and evolve the Dubs approach to winning while small, strangely zagging back to what’s worked in the past as East contemporaries ‘zig’ big.

Will it be enough to stay in the conversation of belonging in the league’s elite?

We’ll just have to wait to find out.